Microsoft unveiled today plans for two new utilities, one designed to improve the way partners in the company's adCenter online advertising system generate revenues from paid search and the other to optimize Web sites for Microsoft Live Search. The adCenter platform is the core weapon in Microsoft's bid to compete with rival ad platforms from market leaders Google, Yahoo, AOL and several others. The adCenter partners pick keywords that will help boost their products or services, and then build ads they believe users will click on.

The first new tool, adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007, is a software application that helps adCenter customers find keywords that will better help them target the right audience with their paid search advertising campaigns. The Add-in plugs into an Excel spreadsheet and helps advertisers build keyword lists for their business products or services, taking into account relevance, cost and projected volume. The Add-in is slated for launch on Jan. 8, 2008.

The second tool Microsoft plans to release is actually a portal designed for Webmasters and search engine optimizers. The Webmaster Center provides resources to help Web sites achieve the highest possible algorithmic listing on Microsoft's Live Search software. The portal tells search experts about how Live Search crawls and indexes site pages; site map creation and submission; statistics about Web sites indexed by Live Search; and content submission guidelines.